After managing the Twins for 13 seasons from 2002-2014, during which he compiled a 1068-1039 record (.507 winning percentage), Gardenhire has been on the move.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” said Gardenhire, who on Friday morning served as the keynote speaker at a meeting of the Horizon Council, a non-profit organization that advises Lee County on economic issues. Gardenhire touched on the business of baseball and his new team. Despite the move to Detroit, he’ll continue to keep a winter home in Fort Myers and a summer one in Minnesota. Right now, he’s looking for a spring training place to stay in Lakeland and then a place to live during the season in Detroit.

“I love Minnesota,” Gardenhire said. “We have so many friends there. But as you get a little older, that cold hurts you worse. We like it down here. We like the warm.”

But not too warm. Arizona presented its own set of weather challenges.

“When it’s 115 degrees, I don’t care how dry it is,” he said. “It’s still hot. It’s like a blow dryer in your face.”

CLOSE

Only nine managers have been ejected more than new Detroit Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire .
Wochit

The days following Arizona’s postseason loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers were surreal, Gardenhire said.

“In the middle of all of that driving, I flew to Detroit and Boston,” Gardenhire said. “I did an interview in the morning in Detroit. Caught a plane in the late afternoon. Spent the night in Boston. Got up in the morning and interviewed with their staff.”

The ascending Red Sox hired Joey Cora, and the rebuilding Tigers selected Gardenhire, who knows a thing or two about the process. The Tigers were 64-98 last season. The Twins were 69-93 under Tom Kelly in 2000 before Gardenhire guided them to six divisional titles.

“They’re rebuilding the ballclub over there in Detroit,” Gardenhire said. “They want to start from the ground up and rebuild this thing.”

The new manager for the Detroit Tigers Ron Gardenhire on the field at Comerica Park in Detroit on Friday, October 20, 2017.(Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press)

The wheeling and dealing of Major League Baseball’s winter meetings next month means Gardenhire could have a new-look Tigers roster come February, when pitchers and catchers report to Lakeland. Because of that, Gardenhire didn’t get too caught up in his current players, which include All-Star slugger Miguel Cabrera, second baseman Ian Kinsler and shortstop Jose Iglesias.

“I knew this going in,” Gardenhire said of the rebuilding. “They want to get away from all that money they spent on payrolls and get back to normalcy. They want to revamp the organization. This is something they want to do.

“This is something we did with the Twins all the time. Over and over.”

Gardenhire reached to his Twins past in building his Tigers staff. He hired Liddle to be his bench coach. Former Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson will be the Tigers bullpen coach, and former Twins hitting coach Joe Vavra will be the quality control coach.

The Tigers also hired former Fort Myers Miracle manager Doug Mientkiewicz to be their Triple-A manager in Toledo. Gardenhire had a say in that.

“They called me and asked about him,” Gardenhire said of Mientkiewicz, who played first base for Gardenhire with the Twins. “I told them I thought he was one of the better managers in the system. He’s always been great. Dougie’s a fireball. You’ve got to understand that when you hire Dougie, you’re going to get a fireball. He’s very opinionated, and he’s going to tell you that. But he’s really good.”

(Photo: The Associated Press)

Gardenhire said his time last season on Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo’s bench was well spent. The team turned around from a 69-93 record in 2016 to 93-69 in 2017.

“I had watched Torey go through exactly the same stuff I went through on a day-to-day basis, trying to please every player,” Gardenhire recalled of his first season managing the Twins. “I was just there to help him.

“When you’re sitting on that bench, you’re into the game. It’s intense. Anxiety comes in. You want to win. That’s the part of it I enjoy. Fortunately for me, Torey was fantastic to work for. That helped me get that feeling back.”